CSC Station: Reinforcing the value of Wilmington as a great place to do business

BY SCOTT MALFITANO

ABOUT A YEAR AGO, our CEO Rod Ward asked how CSC could invest in the community and growth of the city of Wilmington. Although our global headquarters and campus has been located outside the city limits for 30-plus years, we wanted to make an investment to demonstrate our support for Wilmington and its redevelopment efforts.

CSC’s business is international, but we were founded in Delaware and want to help highlight that Wilmington is the gateway for state visitors, as well as a great place to live, work, and raise a family. It’s also a great location for small businesses, for those looking to establish their careers, and people looking to plant their roots in a place where we can all make a difference.

With that in mind, we purchased the PA Railroad Building at 112 S. French Street in the city of Wilmington and will open a coworking space and innovation hub at the end of October. It’s a 43,000-square-foot historic building with six floors built in 1905 along the Christina riverfront and stands adjacent to the Wilmington train station served by Amtrak and SEPTA.

We named it CSC Station, extending our brand into the city, and providing convenience to our customers, employees, and local businesses by being next door to the train station and close to downtown attractions. We look to appeal to young entrepreneurs and invite our clients from New York, Philadelphia, and Washington to use the facilities as a destination meeting and collaboration spot to conduct business. To date, CSC Station has attracted several exciting companies to set up shop, including multicity CompassRed and Aegis (from Philadelphia), Social Contract, and Intern Delaware.

Our vision is way beyond real estate. We re-imagine collaboration by connecting people, ideas and resources to impact our community and surroundings.

CSC Station will help us bring additional employment talent to Delaware and serve as a central location for our teams to work on projects and host offsite meetings—which we anticipate other companies will use the same way.

Discussions to invest in Wilmington took place before the pandemic changed the way we work. Many companies are evaluating whether they are getting the same or better productivity from employees working from home. Others are looking for smaller space, shorter agreements, and a safe environment. All that affected our decisions on features and amenities we’ll offer.

But these changes didn’t modify the vision we laid out last January. We’ve been able to create a bright, spacious location and dynamic workplace. It includes a new open-air staircase cut into the building that visually and physically connects the space; high-speed internet; an upgraded air filtration system; a new variable refrigerant flow HVAC system; and stateof-the art security upgrades that enable our members to use their mobile device to access the building, their offices, conference rooms and more.

Visitors and tenants will be able to visit the Wilmington Riverfront, collaborate on an open-air patio, and access numerous concierge services.

This investment brings us into the heart of the city and enhances our ability to attract new employees from neighboring cities while reinforcing to college seniors in Delaware and elsewhere that Wilmington is a great place to work.

The Riverfront is a different place today than it was 25 years ago when the Riverfront Development Corporation was established to create economic vitality along the Brandywine and Christiana rivers. All of us at CSC are proud that CSC Station will be the first building thousands of people see when they get off the train, adding to one of the most exciting redevelopment stories in the nation.

Scott Malfitano is a vice president at CSC, vice chairman of the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce, and chair of both Intern Delaware and the Pete du Pont Freedom Foundation. Learn more at cscstation.com.